What We've Been Up To Lately

So many fun things happening around here lately.

Our elementary school had its annual talent show. The kids look forward to this day all year long, guessing who's gonna do what and preparing ideas for their own acts. All of the students look forward to their sixth grade year, because the finale is always reserved for the entire sixth grade class.

I was unfamiliar with the song, but it had a strong African beat, and a few kids and teachers pulled out the drums to make it even better.

By the end, each kid was shaking a rain stick and getting into their characters.

I love this tradition, and this performance marks the beginning of the end of the year.

Micah has been so lucky to grow up with this great group of boys.

One teacher looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, "This makes me so sad. I'm already missing them!"

Bright and early the next morning, Micah and Hyrum met their teacher/tutor extraordinaire for the maiden flights of the air balloons they've been making.

Heidi's family was in town, and everyone piled out of the house to watch.

First they tried Hyrum's but they discovered the glue had made it too top heavy and it refused to fly.

They used a hair dryer to heat the air, but AZ air is already pretty warm, even this early in the year, and it was a struggle to get the air warm enough for flight.

The little kids stayed interested while the balloon was filling . . .

. . . and big kids had to pull faces as we waited . . .

. . . but as the process dragged on, the kids wandered off.

Eve takes her role as auntie to these guys very seriously.

She is definitely the ringleader and the boss.

By the time it was Micah's turn, most of the family had run off somewhere else.

His balloon filled much faster and pulled against the fishline quickly.

Unfortunately, this is as high in the sky as it got.

Both boys were quite discouraged. I was satisfied with the idea that they will have to rework their designs and try again. Kids today too often are sheltered from failure and the necessity of redoing and trying again. They are protected from the lessons taught from hard work and picking up from a failure. The AZ elements are against them, for sure, since summer is looming ever closer, but I hope that with a little more work, we will see these balloons fly.